Zoo holds panda birthday party

One of Edinburgh Zoo’s famous pandas has celebrated his ninth birthday, the bear’s first on Scottish soil.

Yang Guang, “Sunshine”, received a delicious panda cake for his special day.

He was also given honey-coated bamboo “presents” along with carrot and apple treats.

Other animals at the zoo will also be joining in with the birthday bash too.

The party animals will include the resident troop of chimpanzees and rhinos, who will also be eating a slice or two of specially made birthday cake for this special day.

Female panda Tian Tian will celebrate her birthday in 10 days’ time.

The bamboo-based panda cake was placed in Yang Guang's enclosure...

Darren McGarry, Head of Animals at Edinburgh Zoo, said: “It’s all been quite exciting here for us planning the first of two very special birthdays, and first up to receive the birthday treatment is Yang Guang.

“We all know how much Yang Guang loves bamboo, usually munching his way through around 60kg of the green stuff a day, so we thought what better than building big boxes made of it for his presents.

“We’ve made up large and small boxes made from some of his preferred species of bamboo, added a few smears of honey and stashed a few carrots and apples inside for him to discover.

Ever alert for a new treat, Yang Guang eats bamboo in industrial quantities

He continued: “It will be fantastic to see his reaction to his birthday gifts, as we’ve never given him anything like these presents before, it might bamboozle him slightly at first but, I’m sure it won’t be too long before he realises it’s a tasty treat.

“He’ll need to figure out how to get into them, as most nine year old boys are a little bit more boisterous than girls, he’ll probably throw them around and generally smash the boxes to bits and pieces and then eat it all up.”